Gayle caught in guest squall

Officially, it's being described as an "incident", but it was serious enough for the West Indies to have a "team meeting" on the issue.

Former captain Gayle (who has a playboy image), Fidel Edwards, Andre Russell and Dwayne Smith are reportedly the ones who featured in the "incident" around 3.30 am today.

It was at their team hotel, the Cinnamon Grand, which was once the Lanka Oberoi.

According to a well-placed source of The Telegraph, the cricketers went to a night club where they met three women, apparently from the UK.

Going by what the source said, Gayle and Co. invited the women over to their hotel.

However, the elite Ministerial Security Division personnel at the Cinnamon Grand refused to allow the women to accompany the cricketers till a "guest book" was signed.

The cricketers, it is learnt, refused to oblige and an altercation ensued.

As the Kollpitty police station is almost next door, it didn't take long for men to arrive from there.

There's confusion over what happened next, but it's understood that the women were taken into custody. They have since been released as nobody pressed charges.

It couldn't be confirmed, but the West Indies manager, former captain Richie Richardson, reportedly issued an "apology" on behalf of the cricketers to the security personnel.

In the evening, media manager Philip Spooner stated: "There was an incident, but the issue is now closed.… The police came into the picture, but our cricketers weren't involved in any wrongdoing.…

"We've had a team meeting where everything was discussed.… The cricketers are totally focused on Friday's (World Twenty20) semi-final against Australia....

"The incident is being portrayed as a Gayle issue, but it's not so."

Spooner, though, declined to elaborate.

There was no comment from the International Cricket Council. Neither did Sri Lanka Cricket say anything.

Early in the tournament, the same hotel had witnessed a security breach when a "male escort" reached the floor housing the George Baileys.

Back in 1996, when the Cinnamon Grand was the Lanka Oberoi, a former Miss Sri Lanka had apparently been caught in Australia's stand-in captain Ian Healy's room. That was during the Singer World Series.

Perhaps, there's never a dull moment at the luxury property!

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